


The Silent Pink Hostess

by Lt_Kickbutt



Category: RWBY
Genre: AU-Earth, F/M, MonCon May, Mysterious Past, Reformed Roman, small town, small town gossip
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-21
Updated: 2016-05-21
Packaged: 2018-06-09 20:33:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6922369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lt_Kickbutt/pseuds/Lt_Kickbutt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In between apartments and down on their luck Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury travel to spend two days of homelessness with their old business partner Roman Torchwick at his new home. Having not seen each other for nearly a year after the dispute that broke them up the trio have to rely on the hospitality of Roman's short, pink girlfriend Neo.</p><p>MonCon May entry for the RWBY subreddit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Silent Pink Hostess

**Author's Note:**

> MonCon voting will start sometime next week, I'll update notes and summery with link to the vote when its up! The criteria for this month was to use Neo as a character and revenge as a theme. If you enjoy this or want to read more Neo and vote consider bookmarking to come back next week.
> 
> Voting page is up! If you want to participate and read some more Neo: https://www.reddit.com/r/RWBY/comments/4l7oly/official_rrwby_moncon_may_2016_voting/

“Oh my God, all I can see are _trees_. Are you sure there are even _humans_ out here?” Emerald stared out the front passenger window with her head in her hand. Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury had gotten off the highway twenty minutes ago and have been traveling West down a thin, two lane paved road ever since. Out of the three of them not a single one had ever lived outside a city smaller than a million people, but for the next few days they were in dire financial straits.

“This is the right direction. GPS still has us going the right way. We’re only fifteen minutes away now.” Cinder had driving and navigating responsibilities. She would never willingly give up a captain’s right to either of these two, and they had learned over the years to never ask. The three of them had taken a bad beat recently, and downsizing their business to life support meant these partners’ livelihoods took an embarrassing hit. Selling their posh high-rise apartments the three made an incredibly astounding decision to move into one apartment for the three of them, but worth a fifth of their combined rent. This car ride was not to that new apartment. No matter how much they wished it were, but the previous tenant of their new apartment had one more day to clear out and then another day for the landlord to clean and take inventory before they could move in.

No. Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury were headed to their old friend and former business partner, Roman Torchwick, to spend out the two days of homelessness absolutely free. Roman had gotten out of the gang when their computer software company, Black Queen Software, went bankrupt. With a less than mutual departure the others had quickly found their feet with a new software small business. Now back in the muck Cinder and the others realized just how important Roman’s savvy was to their initial success.

“How can he live out here? With a normal job and everything.” Emerald visibly shuddered as she imagined what kind of house Roman could have in the woods. She hoped no hot water would be the worst of it, but the thought of an old time outhouse crossed her mind and made her sick.

“I don’t mind it. It’s a nice change for a few days. Maybe it’ll get our creative juices flowing.” Usually quiet Mercury prided himself on being annoyingly optimistic whenever Emerald could hear.

“I don’t want to even _think_ about any juices flowing out of you while we’re sleeping in the same room.”

“…I can be silent.” Mercury leaned forward from the backseat to make sure Emerald saw his grin.

“CINDER!” Emerald squealed reeling, “Please, _please_ just share the guest bed.”

Cinder’s eyes narrowed and answered coldly, “I’m not sharing with either one of you. Figure it out. Are you both going to act like this the whole time?”

Mercury fell back into his seat, “It’s only Roman. Not like he won’t be expecting it.”

“You doofus, remember Roman’s girlfriend also lives with him…Neon?” Emerald turned to Cinder for confirmation.

“Neo. You really don’t remember us all talking about this Mercury?” After a shrug Cinder sighed, “It’s his girlfriend of four months now. Roman didn’t tell me much but he did say, and this is pretty important, she’s mute. So do not to make a deal about it and be good guests.

“Hmm.” Mercury cocked his head to the side and the three returned to silence.

“You have reached your destination” the robotic GPS voice broke the silence as Cinder turned into the empty gravel driveway. Parking towards the front the three jumped out of the car and gathered up their air mattress, pillows, and clothes.

“Come on, he has a key under the mat for us.” Nestled into a heavily wooded area Roman’s house looked like the normal cookie cutter home with a front porch, garage, brown vinyl siding, one story with four windows facing out this direction, and absolutely pedestrian. Cinder missed the noise of her city life already. She could hear birds chirping and frogs croaking but it sincerely didn’t interest her. In fact the idea of troves of wild animals circling around her while she slept repulsed her.

“What do you guys think is the most dangerous animal in these woods?” Emerald spoke out scanning the trees thinking the same things as Cinder. No one had the knowledge to answer and the truth could have never been as frightening as what Emerald imagined.

Mercury smiled excitedly, “We should rent a scary movie to watch while we’re here, in the _proper_ setting.”

“We should not!” Both Cinder and Emerald snapped around in unison. Obviously going to be short on things to do Mercury shrugged sincerely thinking his idea was fine.

“Do you think he has any neighbors? What if he’s the _only one_ out here?” Desperate to get Mercury to be quiet Cinder jiggled the key into the lock and with no apparent success she hastily threw her shoulder into the door getting it to open. Cinder dragged her bag into the apparent guest room and closed the door behind her.

Emerald and Mercury split up and searched the house. His house had an open plan with the living room connected to the kitchen, no dining table but an island with stools around it, and a single hallway to the left.  Cleaned spotless in preparation for their houseguests Mercury dropped his bag at the end of couch and collapsed onto it stretching out. Emerald ran to the bathroom down the hall and after two minutes and a flush she returned, “Well, he has plumbing.”

“You seriously didn’t think Roman would have plumbing? It’s still Roman, he would never last without running water.” Scoffing at the couch Emerald looked out into the backyard through the sliding glass door.

“How can you blame me?! Come look at this. We’re _surrounded._ This can’t be normal.” Roman’s back yard consisted of about only twenty feet of lawn before the tall trees engulfed the sight line. Emerald craned her neck to try to look over the canopy.  Joining Emerald at the door Mercury belted out an impressed whistle at the height of the trees. Scanning the tops Emerald whispered, “What does he even do for fun?”

Cocking an eyebrow Mercury snickered with his answer, “Well, he has a girlfriend.”

“Ugh…I swear if they get all romantic in front of me I’m going to pop him in the teeth.”

“You never know, she might be cute. Might be your type.”

Emerald’s eyes narrowed slowly into a glare, “Not that I _ever_ want to interrupt your fantasies, but I guarantee everyone we meet out here are going to be large, bucktoothed, hairy hill people. I’m a little more particular than that” Emerald gave him a quick elbow jab to his arm, “thank you very much.” Turning around she walked into the kitchen to the loud humming of the refrigerator with linoleum floors and countertops.

 Mercury, not giving up on his jabs, “I don’t know. Roman has always had some hot girlfriends back home.” Emerald froze in place and clenched her fists. Mercury must have spotted it when he continued, “Remember Glynda? How could you not? You had such a crush on her, working so hard to get her attention.” Mercury lined himself in front of the couch ready for Emerald’s response when she walked up to him.

Putting her hands on his shoulders she whispered into his ear, “How about you shut up?” and promptly shoved him into Roman’s couch. “I’m over trying to get under Roman’s skin. This place is pitiful enough.”

“Whatever. We’ll see.” Mercury had a huge grin on his face as down the hall the door to guest room flew open and Cinder screamed.

“WHAT?! WHAT!? IS IT A SPIDER?” Emerald backed around from the hallway as Mercury burst into laughter.

“I forgot my bathroom bag.” Cinder mumbled as she plodded into the living room as though she had seen a ghost.

Emerald’s sigh turned to anger, “Why would you scream like that?!”

“Well, what am I going to do?” Supporting a familiar scowl.

“I have shampoo and soap you can use.” Emerald ran to her bag she had placed next to Mercury’s and pulled out her shampoo and an unopened bar of soap.

“ _Bar_ soap? I can’t share bar soap with someone.” Cinder visibly cringed and Emerald’s face dropped dejected.

“Come on C, it’s just soap and it’s Emerald.” Coming to the aid of Emerald Mercury put his hands behind his head as he leaned back into the couch.

“Don’t get cute! I’ll-” She snapped.  Getting ready to reprimand Mercury for his ridiculous pet name the front door opened with a creaking sound. The trio all turned their head’s to the door as a small girl poked her head into the house looking in all directions. Well shorter than anything they expected her hair split half light brown and half pink cut short down at her neck. Her eyes were of two different colors, also pink and brown, but on opposite sides of her corresponding hair.

She of course spotted the three of them in her house and offered a composed smile before opening the door completely. Carrying two large brown bags full of groceries in her arms and another plastic bag hooked on her fingers she inched inside. She craned and wiggled her head, the message of which went over everyone’s until she made a labored exhale through her nose and Mercury finally jumped up to grab a bag.

Placing the bag on the counter Mercury spoke first, “Sorry about that…” Halted by a raised hand Mercury couldn’t hide a smile as the short pastel colored girlfriend of Roman’s, with her faded blue jeans, low cut black tee-shirt, and white sneakers reached into the plastic bag and pulled out a new spiral notebook and a glittering, light brown sharpie.

Scribbling quickly on the first page she handed it to Mercury. _Its okay! My name is Neo. I’m Roman’s girlfriend, I’m glad you all found the house._ Mercury starting reading aloud instinctually and Neo blushed under their scrutiny.

Cinder rushed over to Neo’s side and grabbed up her hands. “Neo, you wouldn’t to happen to have any soap I could use? I guess I forgot my bathroom bag.” With an unflinching smile even through Cinder’s forwardness Neo nodded, reached into the plastic bag, and pulled out an unopened bar of soap.

Mercury couldn’t help but to start laughing again and on the other side of the counter Emerald started to chuckle. Neo looked around with the same smile on her face simply enjoying her guests having a good time. Cinder’s eyebrow rose, but took her own advice to heart, “Perfect! You’re a life saver. Do you mind if I take a shower now? We’ve been trapped in our car for hours.”

Neo flipped the page and began to write again. Flipping the notebook around Cinder read her message to herself. _Sure thing! The towels are all clean in the cupboard in the bathroom._

Cinder did an about face and retreated to the bathroom. The door closed and Neo went to unpack groceries. Mercury and Emerald sat silently at the island watching her place things away she could reach and leaving out items that Roman would normally put away. Neo nervously checked over her shoulder wishing they would say something or start talking to each other at least. Mercury played with her spiral notebook, flipping through pages like a bored schoolboy until Emerald gave him a glare.

Neo stopped with groceries to write for them, _Roman should be home any minute now. How long have you all been waiting? What do you do for a living? Roman said you’re business partners, what do sell?_

Emerald and Mercury exchanged glances deciding which would answer her before Emerald spoke, “Well I’m Emerald. We haven’t been here long, maybe fifteen minutes. I love your home!” Emerald faked a smile to the back of Neo’s head and continued, “Its quaint out here. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many trees. You’re absolutely surrounded! How do you do it?

“We’ve own a couple of small businesses. Back in the day when Roman ran with us we owned Black Queen Software which was a computer software company for storing, sorting, and retrieving huge amounts of data. For businesses and such. I’m the accountant slash tax expect slash managed the money.” Emerald threw an elbow into Mercury again to get him to introducing himself.

“I’m Mercury. I’m the brains of the operation slash general punching bag. That software was actually my invention, now we try to develop and sell all kinds of software.”

Neo walked over and giggled silently as she wrote her answers, _The woods are okay! I’ve lived in town just down the road my entire life, never once felt lonely in a town of 900 people. That’s so interesting! What did Roman do for your business? He doesn’t talk much about his old jobs, but he’s such a fast talker I imagine he was a salesman. Don’t let them beat you up Mercury!! I’ll defend you :)_

“Roman was our lead salesman. He used to be connected to everyone and everything. Could sell anyone anything it seemed like.” Just then the door knob jiggled and the door opened to reveal Roman. He had a big smile on his face in an orange flannel button up and dark blue jeans.

“Hiya kids!” Mercury smirked and Emerald scoffed but got up to hug him as he went around the table. “What you guys talking about?”

“Ooooh, just the good old days.” Mercury smiled as he spoke while Roman put away the groceries in the tall cupboards. Roman stopped next to Neo and she sneaked her fingers into his underneath the counter. Roman stroked her fingers both of them nervous about how much affection to show even after not seeing each other much lately.

“Where is Cinder? I’ve missed that glare.” Neo elbowed Roman and Emerald caught a joyful squeak in her throat.

“She’s been in the shower for a while now.” Emerald waved her hand dismissively.

“Ooooo.” Neo elbowed Roman with twice the force this time and he grabbed his arm, “Not like that! Someone has to warn her about the well water.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

Roman leaned onto the countertop across from Emerald, keenly aware none of them had the slightest idea what to expect out here, “You see Emerald, the water out here is different from the city, and here it comes from a well nearby. Well water has more copper in it, and if any of you spend too much time in the shower your skin will turn orange!”

Neo’s jaw fell open and with a shake of her head she began to write, _DON’T LISTEN TO HIM! NO IT-_ Roman grabbed her hand with a grin on his face and shook, ruining her message. They began to wrestle over her pen out of the kitchen and into the living room where Neo jumped into him and they tumbled over the back of the couch. Falling off the ground onto the floor with a loud bang they heard the shower stop and Cinder getting out in a hurry.

Huffing and puffing Roman let go and Neo licked her fingers and wiped the sharpie mark on Roman’s neck. Kissing his clean neck Neo ran her fingers through his hair while their guests looked on with confused faces.

“Mercury. Did you bring a Warrior to play?”

“Sure did. Did you want to play?”

“Not me. I mean, I still play, but Neo here has the complete collection. And is really good.” Neo’s head sprang up from the pile of two bodies on the ground and gave Roman a questioning look. “Didn’t I tell you? Mercury plays Remnant Warriors too. I told him to bring a character.”

Neo rolled up and checked in the cabinet under the television in the living room. Stashed under the television The Remnant Warrior game pad was connected and ready to play. Turning on the TV and the game pad Mercury zipped to his travel bag to get his character. With a smug smile he pulled his figure out of his bag and placed it on the pad.

Neo stared at the figurine confused because she had never seen this one before. She got in close and studied the figure. Apparently female, with a long black robe on her face was stark white except for black marks and red eyes.

“You ever see Salem before? She’s the new generation four character.” Mercury shrugged and gloated, “I guess you don’t have _all_ the characters.” Neo grit her teeth disappointed but determined to defeat Mercury in her favorite game.

Pulling a shoebox from the cabinet Neo went through her collection of Remnant Warriors. There was Punchy blonde girl, Yang. Neo liked playing her, but she always took a beating. Her little sister Ruby, admittedly Neo hadn’t leveled Ruby yet. Jaune, same problem, in fact even worse. The Ice Queen and her older sister introduced in generation three, but Neo didn’t care about the lore in video games. Qrow, he was fun to look at in the game, but Neo didn’t want to pull any punches.

As Neo went through it Cinder emerged from the bathroom wrapped in a towel, “What was that crash?”

“Blame Roman” Emerald called out from the island.

Cinder’s eyes turned to a glare as she scanned Roman. “What are you _wearing_?!”

“There’s that glare I’ve missed so much!” Roman laughed as she scoffed and turned into the guest room for clothes.

Digging through the figurines Neo pulled out her most played warrior and universally agreed by the community the hardest to play, Penny Polendina. Penny’s combos were longer than anyone’s but she could take a beating and if you got a combo off it did considerable damage. With gusto Neo slammed Penny on the pad and she and Mercury took up the controllers.

The match started and Neo smiled genuinely hoping Mercury would be more of a challenge than Roman. Having so few people to play Neo really wanted to put her best foot forward. Salem did look quite imposing on screen as the two characters traded taunts, “Such a small soul!” and, “I’m combat ready!”

Jumping into Salem Penny got the first few strikes off. Checking the minimal damage Neo guessed Salem played as a tanky character and set out accordingly. Gaging to test Mercury’s skills she got in close and started laying down hits. Mercury mistimed all his blocks and Salem’s health chipped away. Neo swapped to blocking to see what Mercury would do but he just kept swinging the standard punch instead of a grapple. Admittedly disappointed Neo opened up to show off combo moves and finish Mercury in style.

 _Up, B, Up, B, Up, Up-_ Salem smacked poor Penny resetting the combo. _Up, B, Up-_ Smacked again with the basic attack. _Up, B-_ Smacked a third time in rapid succession. Neo glanced over to Mercury sitting with his legs crossed but jumping and writhing in his seat as he proceeded to mash every button as fast as he could.

Neo gawked at the man as he looked like a contortionist stuck in place. Unwilling to lose to such a player Neo went back to mixing up attacks but when Penny got close Salem smacked her again. Salem clearly seemed over powered as her basic attack flew faster and did more damage than Neo expected. Neo backed Penny away, if she could just get the laser attack off the tables would turn.

Starting her combo all Penny just needed a few seconds to fire. Mercury, emboldened by his “success” so far started to run to Neo’s side of the stage. Salem flew across the map faster than any character in the game and proceeded to punch and jab Penny trapping her to the wall with just the basic attack. Neo tried to counter but even then Salem’s attacks were so fast they just trapped Penny again. Penny sat helpless against the wall as Salem whittled down her aura.

When the round ended Neo shook with anger. She still had a chance to win but that display was so pitiful she had no will to try. She handed her controller off to Roman sitting on the couch next to Emerald and got up to go start dinner. The round ran through her mind a dozen times and each time only made her more upset. Upset at the new character and upset at Mercury for being such a noob.  She sighed and picked up her notebook.

Handing the notebook to Emerald the page had a note she read aloud, _Do you guys want hamburgers or spaghetti and meatballs tonight?_

 “Hamburgers!” Mercury called out as he laid the finishing blow into Penny and named the victor.

“Hamburgers are okay with me” Emerald answered looking up from her seat with a smile.

Roman agreed and Cinder had no opinion either way when she walked into the living room in a red and yellow dress and sat down hip to hip against Roman.

“So Roman, what are you doing for work now?” Cinder propped up her head against the arm of the couch as she scanned him.

“I work at the auto plant. It’s back on the highway and south about five minutes more.”

“That sounds absolutely dreadful. Here you are choosing between hamburgers and spaghetti in the middle of nowhere. You used to rent expensive high rise apartments and choose between filet mignon and Chilean seabass.”

In the kitchen Neo froze and couldn’t help from frowning. She had known so little about Roman but never imagined he had been forced to give up so much. They both tried their hardest to carve out this little bit of a home, mostly for each other, but she had always wondered if it had been enough. If she had been enough.

Roman chuckled before answering, “We all got to grow up sometime. I don’t blame any of you for wanting another crack at the good life, but me, I was three cracks deep even before you met me and still nothing ever stuck. Nothing to raise a family on.” Neo’s gasp stuck in her throat as her eyes went wide,  “Besides, I’ve never worked harder in my life and yet I’ve never been so consistently happy. So I’ll work like a dog if it means I can keep it.”

“Torchwick. I don’t believe you for a second.” Cinder gave off a calculated grin as Roman laughed at her. Cinder leaned in and rested her head on Roman’s shoulder. Not wanting to mortally offend Cinder he let it go while Neo had her back to them frying up hamburger. As the four awkwardly exchanged looks a silent history floated between them and Roman smelled something peculiar.

Sniffing once and leaning over to Cinder he sniffed again, “Uhhh…why are you smelling me?”

Sniffing once more he asked, “Why do you smell like Neo’s ‘super special, having a bad day, cinnamon body wash’”?

Neo slammed the ketchup and mustard she pulled out of the fridge on the table and ran into the bathroom, “Her super what?” Returning into the living room Neo had a bottle of body wash turned upside down. Squeezing with all her might Neo received nothing but cinnamon scented air. Her lower lip turned out and she pouted between Roman and Cinder. She ran back into the shower and grabbed the bar of soap Cinder was supposed to use, waving it in her face.

“I know you gave me the soap, but I saw the body wash there and it smelled so nice. I didn’t know it was so important to you, I’m sorry.” Neo scrunched her face in disappointment as she crushed the bottle to try to ease her rage. In a huff the small girl spun around in an about face like a brightly colored top and marched back into the kitchen.

“Why didn’t you just use the damn bar of soap?!” Roman hissed at her as Emerald and Mercury ganged up with their glares.

“I don’t like bar soap okay! I forgot my bathroom bag at my old place! I’m not getting that back you know.”

“I don’t give a shit! It’s an hour drive to the nearest store that sells that stuff. It’s not like we can fit that into our schedule every day!” Roman got up and walked to the kitchen to whisper apologies into Neo’s ear.

Several minutes later Roman broke the silence as he cut buns, “Food is ready guys.” As three guests slowly walked to the table totally dejected Neo stood chopping onion slices with an oversized knife and deliberate force staring at Cinder. Eating in silence they went through their hamburgers, offered their compliments, and marginally helped clean up.

After dinner the five sat around the island drinking beers and playing hangman out of Neo’s spiral or cards while Cinder and the others talked their business plan with Roman. Neo stuck around to facilitate games and listen to Roman’s suggestions to the group. Even nearly a full year out of the city Roman had half a dozen ideas or contacts to help them. Neo caught herself swooning watching his mouth and hands move with remarkable confidence. And his eyes. Looking into his eyes always made her believe life could be better. Her’s were just an oddity, big, and brightly colored, but only reminded her of her parents.

Neo turned in for the night earlier than anyone else. She and Roman both had to get up early for work, but Roman never needed much sleep. After a short while Mercury asked the questions everyone had been itching to know.

“So…Neo and you. How did you get hooked up?”

“She does seem…colorful.” Cinder interjected before Roman started to talk.

“She works part time hours just about everywhere in town. I would go into town and I’d see her working at the diner busing tables, and then the next day the bar, and the next day the hardware store. It was the oddest thing so I asked her about it.”

“I feel a _but_ coming” Emerald interrupted.

“ _But_ , she couldn’t speak to me and didn’t know me so she’d scamper off. Which was enough to incur the wrath of the townspeople.” Roman laughed as he took a drink from his beer, “Everyone is so protective of her there, and I was a new guy from the city. Dressed like someone from the city no less. They thought they wouldn’t like me, but I can outtalk an entire room of these townies. So to make some friends I joined in on their jokes and games of pool and really out of nine hundred people I haven’t met a truly shitty person yet.”

“And then I asked her. There might be less than a dozen single girls my age in this town. Apparently it’s tradition to move to the city to get a job, sometimes people can swing driving from there to the city, it’s nearly an hour drive. So with few pickings she really did seem special” Roman sighed softly with a smile as his elbow held up his head, “She really can light up a room with her smile, and everyone around her loves her. I got some seriously harsh encouragement to do right by her, but I knew if I was going to make this my home I’d see her all the time so I had to try.”

Cinder dismissively hummed out a “hmm” while the other’s had their attention to Roman, “Roman. Do you have to work tomorrow? Are we going to actually do anything remotely exciting?”

“No can do for me. I have a triple shift tomorrow, sadly. But it is Friday so everyone is gathering for happy hour, Neo will take you tomorrow. You can see the town.”

“Triple shift?! I don’t even want to think about it. I know you’re a working man and all now, but don’t you think that’s a little much? On a Friday no less.”

Roman smiled and chuckled at his answer, turning from Cinder to his bedroom door, “I’m saving money up. For something pretty big…”

Cinder slapped her hand on the counter excitedly, “I knew it! You’ve got a business plan for out here! I knew there was a reason you’d come here. What’s the product? Who’s the key demographic? If you’re looking for a business partner I want in.”

Roman laughed nervously, “Actually, I had a partner in mind already.”

“Well fine. Investors then.”

Still chuckling, “I’ll have to check with the partner. Until then, I’m going to bed.” Walking towards the hall Roman remembered his role as host, “Are you all good? Need anything else before I turn in?”

The three shook their head no as Mercury took off his shirt and dropped his pants and crawled onto the couch in his boxers. Emerald shuddered as she had to lay down on the air mattress behind the couch. Cinder simply strutted to the guest room and shut the door behind her.

The woods around the house rustled in the wind. An early morning fog covered so think Emerald couldn’t see eight feet in the air. Her feet carried her unwillingly through the woods, passing a dozen trees before being halted by the howl of a wolf. Shivering she felt a cold rush over her for the first time and turned around to head back. Stopped in her tracks Emerald began to sweat as the path she had come had disappeared. In its place not trees or woods, but a cliff that led to a tall drop. Out on the cliff stood two figures in silhouette. One more than two feet taller than the other, and the tall one had a bowler hat on his head. The two held each other in their arms and Emerald heard her voice calling out to them. The short one turned its head and blinked to reveal a pink and brown eye before breaking from the other’s embrace and pushing it off the cliff.

Emerald jolted awake in a sweaty mess. On the other side of the sofa Mercury snored blissfully asleep. She threw her blanket off of her to no relief from the heat. A heat wave had hit the small house and between that and her nightmare Emerald needed to cool down. Getting off of her mattress she silently walked to kitchen and opened the freezer. The light and chilling temperature hit her face as she sighed, trying to recall every detail of her dream. Opening her groggy eyes Emerald spotted a bin of Spumoni ice cream. Desperate to stay cool she dug around for a spoon and popped open the bin. With only about five spoonful’s left she shrugged and ate the last of it.

Unaware if Roman recycled and to have deniability she stashed the empty bin back in the freezer and crawled back into bed. Drifting off to sleep unaware of what awaited her and her friends tomorrow.

 

DAY TWO:

 Emerald woke the next morning to a dim light in the kitchen and the sound of Roman giggling. Checking her phone it was only five thirty in the morning but couldn’t fall back asleep with the light. Rustling from her air mattress she poked her head over the couch. Roman was in work clothes while Neo, sitting on the counter top, had on a nightgown that went to her thighs. Roman had his hands on her hips while she had her legs on either side of him as they exchanged kisses. Roman looked up as Neo had her back to Emerald and broke their ongoing kiss. Neo turned to look over her shoulder before sliding down off the island.

“Errr….Sorry. I can go back to sleep. If you’re…busy.”

“No, don’t worry about it. You’re up now. Would you like some breakfast?” Roman put a frying pan on the stove and lit the burner. Emerald sat down at the island, at the middle of the table four of the Warriors figurines surrounded the figurine Mercury brought with him. Emerald didn’t know any of the names but there was a red, white, yellow, and black character surrounding the character with red eyes. Unsurprisingly Neo enjoyed to play with the figures as much as the actual game.

“Sure, yes.” Neo retrieved the eggs, toaster, and loaf of bread before joining Emerald at the table with her notebook. She opened to a new page and began to scribble. Emerald waited patiently for a message she figured was for her but after a couple minutes she looked over the small girl’s shoulder. Instead of writing out text Neo had been drawing. Feeling Emerald watching Neo turned and smiled. Sliding the notebook over Neo had drawn a bowl of ice cream, separated into three sections in the bowl.

Emerald’s heart jumped into her throat remembering how Neo acted after finding out her body wash had been stolen. Neo reclaimed her notebook and switched to a bright red pen. Writing a message she slid it back with the same smile Neo introduced herself with. _I have KILLED people for less_. In red letters with a skull at the end Emerald read it and flew out of her chair into the fridge.

“What the hell are you doing?” Roman had turned around from his sizzling eggs as Mercury groaned and stirred.

“She just threated me! I think…” Emerald pointed to Neo and smile turned into a duckface as she shrugged. She held up a separate page in the notebook showing a tic-tac-toe board, _X=Emerald O=Neo_ with Os about to win the game.

“It’s just a game, don’t go tackling my stuff if you lose.” Roman turned and slid eggs off the pan onto a plate with a slice of toast and handed it to Emerald. Emerald sat back down and prodded her yolks while carefully watching Neo. The yellow yolk oozed out slowly slightly undercooked, thick like blood, and covered her entire plate before she noticed the mess. Neo went back to her spiral and wrote out a message.

_Do you think you three would want to go to the bar in town with me after I get home from work? Its going to be fun, all of our friends will be there to meet you._

“We talked about it last night. We all agreed we want to go into town and check out your hometown. So sure we’ll go with you. What time are you both leaving for work?”

“I’ll be leaving right after breakfast here.” Roman’s toast popped and he began to eat fast. After chewing his mouthful he continued, “And Neo will be leaving in an hour for work. Please don’t burn my house down while we’re gone. Go for walk in the backyard, it’s nicer then you think. And when are you going to be surrounded by trees again?”

“Hopefully never.”

“Suit yourself then.” Roman tossed the crust of his toast in the bin prompting Neo to stand up to kiss him goodbye. Standing on her toes she placed her forearms on top of his so he could lift her that quarter inch more. Their lips lingered on each other’s for only moment, hardly enough to replace lost time, but just enough to have everyone’s heart skip a beat. Smiling Roman turned to the door and exited into the dark of the early morning.

Neo sat back down at the island silently next to Emerald. Curling up she set her head on her arms and let out a sigh that startled Emerald. Smiling Neo wrote a message from her fetal position, _You want a kiss too?_ Emerald feigned an unconscious nod as she read it again, but jumped up from the table to throw away her garbage.

Neo’s pupils followed Emerald across the kitchen a sly smile across the teases’ face. Standing up in her thigh high nightgown Neo strut into the bathroom and turned on the shower. Emerald cleaned up and collapsed back on her air mattress trying to pry the image of Roman and Neo making out on a countertop from her head.

Two hours later Mercury’s rumbling around for the bathroom woke Emerald back up. Rolling back out of bed she searched for Neo, as the kitchen still smelled of fried eggs, but only found a note:

_Morning guys! Sorry we couldn’t make breakfast for everyone, we had to get going. I hope you guys can keep yourselves entertained, if you want to play Warriors or cards, you know where it is. It’s going to be a scorcher today, feel free to turn up the AC if you need it. I’ll be back at five to get you._

_Mercury, Sorry about your Warrior figurine. I found it next to the couch this morning. Someone must have stepped on it :(._

Next to the note a pile of what can only be described as miniature Salem rubble.

“Aww what the hell!” Mercury looked over Emerald’s shoulder to see his new figurine smashed.

“I saw your figurine whole this morning! Neo was playing with it with her other characters. Do you think she would have done this? This morning she basically threat-“ Emerald turned around to a half-naked Mercury in boxers and dashed around the island, “AH! Don’t get so close when you’re naked! Weirdo.”

Puffing out his chest Mercury answered, “Drink it in! Not like we have anything better to do.”

“Oh God shut up!” She ducked under the island, “Please put pants on. This is me asking nicely.”

The next two hours the pair lazed about the house as Mercury tried to piece together his figurine and Emerald recanted her weird dream and what happened that morning.

“I can’t even get passed the part where you claim you were awake at five thirty.” Mercury said sincerely as he squinted at the tiniest bits.

“It’s true! The ice cream, the drawing, your figurine, the kissing, and the flirting.”

“I knew it. You have a thing for Roman’s girlfriends.” Gritting her teeth Emerald punched his arm causing him to drop pieces.

“I swear I wake up every morning to her hitting you when we’re all together.” Cinder stood at the entrance to the hallway in her sleeping garb and hair tussled over her face. “Why don’t you just fuck and be done with it?”

Without looking up Mercury snapped back, “Tried that. _Actually_ made things worse.” Emerald’s jaw dropped stunned as she began beating his shoulder senseless.

Spitting out words between blows, “We agreed to never speak of that!”

“Well, whatever. I’m taking a shower while you work it out.” Cinder turned into the bathroom sliding her night gown just off her shoulders before disappearing out of sight. In the bathroom she huffed at her bar soap, debating if she could just go without today. Setting her towel out she turned on the water before noticing a note on a lined piece of paper.

_For Cinder:_

_I did some digging around the house this morning and actually found some body wash! It’s not expired or anything, I hope this suits you better, no hard feelings about yesterday._

Cinder looked through the clear bottle. The clear, viscous liquid had tiny orange beads homogenized throughout. Opening it the scent was absolutely pedestrian, but figured the beads must help with scraping skin or something. Stepping into the shower, the best place to think, she raked her fingers through her hair as she pondered about her business. And about Roman.

In the living room Emerald flipped through channels on the tv before unsatisfyingly settling on The Price is Right. Her and Mercury watched half an episode before they heard the shower turn off.

Five seconds later a Cinder hollered terror from the bathroom, “WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!”. Jumping up the pair ran to the door and Mercury threw it open.

For a split second Cinder stood in front of them, looking in the mirror before turning. Getting caught wet and naked were the least of her worries as somehow the shower had turned her skin into a bright orange.

 Screaming again, “GET OUT!” covering herself Mercury slammed the door closed.

“Uhh…did she just have oompa loompa colored tits?” Mercury hastily whispered.

“I don’t know…I was staring at her ass. That was orange too.”

“YOU PERVERTS!” Cinder screamed through the door, “…help me though.”

“Okay just dry off and come out. We can figure it out.” The two both painstakingly managed to keep straight faces as Cinder came out wrapped in a towel. Every inch of her exposed skin had an orange hue, and they already saw the rest of her. Wrapped in a white towel she radiated like a space heater.

“How could this happen?!” Crying out she rubbed at her wrist but nothing came off.

Emerald’s mind waffled about as she had a chance to study Cinder’s figure, “Uh…did you uh… _do_ anything different to yourself?” Struggling to hold it together through the entire situation Mercury burst into a coughing fit to keep himself from laughing.

“Holy shit, Merc. Not like that!” He waved his hands up in defense as he turned around to catch his breath. “Well…yesterday Roman did claim that well water can turn your skin orange. I thought he was joking…”

“The water?! What the hell is _well water_!?!”

“How should I know?! I thought he made it up. I thought…all water comes from a well? The city just has a big well?” Emerald threw her face into her hands and spoke, “Ugh…we weren’t prepared for this. It’s this damn place! I couldn’t sleep, it’s freaking me out, and now it’s hotter than hell.”

“Maybe it’ll go back to normal before tonight.” Mercury shrugged away. The novelty of their situation had turned to genuine concern. Cinder looked like she had gone nuclear and the fact the three of them together couldn’t even last a full twenty four hours out here before some stupid happened insulted their pride.

They were already hurting enough just having to seek Roman out for his help after what they accused him of, and to have him say yes, no questions asked on top of it. In the years to come they would claim this otherworldly bad luck as their motivation to work hard and succeed, but today they were about to learn of vengeance. Neo knew all about Roman’s former posse and what they had done to him, but in his humility and against her advice he had offered his help. She had known him only as the better man he became, the man humbled by consecutive failures and poor choice of friends. Not just Cinder and the others, but a handful of business partners before them.

They were children to Roman, and Neo agreed, who only knew one life. Their fears and vapid nature had betrayed them. While a life time of hardships gave Neo something these children feared out of laziness; purpose and determination. She hardly needed to hurt them, to hurt their pride would be enough. She unexpectedly lost the last of her body wash and her favorite game, but she didn’t need another reason to defend her boyfriend’s and home’s honor. Even after the fact.

When five o’clock rolled around the living room stank of body odor mixed with multiple applications of deodorant. Out of fear no one else had showered and they cooked in freakish heatwave taking turns standing in front of the window air conditioner. Neo came in to gather everyone, bombarded with questions about Cinder’s skin problem she convinced them that it is a well water issue and is temporary.

No one wanted to go drinking for happy hour, but yet again Neo convinced them they needed to get out of the stench and not to worry. In the car Cinder flipped through radio stations while Neo drove, but only found four that came in clear: two country stations, a religious sermon over the radio, and an oldies station. Disappointed Cinder turned off the radio as Neo laughed to herself.

Cinder had on just about as much clothes as one could get away with in this heat, she hoped the bar would be dark so maybe no would notice, but worried they would notice her glow even in the dark. The four came up with a plan to blame it on sunburn which she accepted. Pulling up to the bar the parking lot had been pretty well packed. Looking around there weren’t any buildings taller than three stories, one stop and go light in the whole town, and they could hear a church bell ringing for five thirty in the distance.

Neo entered the bar grandly, throwing the double doors open to a crowd of cheers. Her people had accepted her with open arms even those who had seen her today working already. Mercury had led the others with Cinder and Emerald both ducking behind him. They expected the room to absolutely shut down for the new comers like some western, but everyone just greeted Neo. When Neo turned with an arm pointed at the trio Mercury spoke first.

“Hi. Were Roman’s old friends from the city. We’re here for a couple of days while our new apartment gets set up.” Neo smiled and nodded and looked to a tall, thin man, looking about his late forties. His clothes were dusty and he wore a John Deere baseball cap. He paused and rubbed his chin from his bar stool.

“Roman’s friends? Any friend of Roman’s is welcome here!” He held his arm out to three open chairs next to him. When the trio sat down and got their rum and coke for Mercury, gin and tonic for Emerald, and cranberry vodka for Cinder the man spoke again.

Holding out his hand to shake Mercury next to him, “Name’s Melvin, what’s all of yours?” Giving Melvin their names he just jumped out with his story, “Yeah, I remember the first Friday Roman came around, in the winter, his jacket looked like it cost five hundred dollars and he was wearing _leather gloves!_ He sat down, looking’ around, and we were all lookin’ right back.” Melvin started a wheezing laugh as he hit the table, “He mumbles out this line, throwing shade at the way _we_ looked. I can’t remember just what he said. Roman would remember.”

Turning to Neo who, had moved down to the other end of the bar, her hands flew as she signed away with two other ladies. Yelling across the bar, “Neo! Where’s Roman tonight?!” She heard him and stood up on the low bar of a stool and shook her head while tapping her wrist like a watch.

“Ah well. That’s too bad. Bless that boy’s heart working so hard.” Melvin finally took a drink of his beer and Cinder, sitting next to Mercury, spoke up.

“Are you kind of close to Neo?”

“Kind of? Everyone in this town is kind of close to that girl. Me, me and the missus housed and did our best to raise that girl, little more than kind of.

Cinder cocked an eyebrow at his strange sentence, “So you’re her…father?”

“No, no he and her mother are long gone.” Emerald looked up to check Neo’s position in the bar before she took over the conversation.

“Should we be…worried about Roman? We’ve been here a day and some odd things happened to us. …And then I think she threatened me.”

“Not this again!” Mercury interjected to save Emerald potential wrath.

Melvin stared at the trio unamused, but giving no tells of surprise. “Look, I don’t know you lot and I never go talking about this to anyone I don’t know, but seeing how Neo and Roman are looking rather serious and you’re all his friends I figure you might find out from someone soon.”

All six eyebrows could have orbited the Earth when Melvin prefaced his story. They couldn’t know what to expect, but again they expected the worst. They slept with her in the same house! Roman actually _slept_ with her! Their drinks warmed as they were neglected, the three completely glued to the story.

“Neo’s lived in town her entire life and around here we sort of all raise each other, I’m sure it’s not so hard to relate to even for people in the biggest city. We all had to raise the girl you see, born without vocal cords she has never been able to speak.” Melvin’s blinked away watery eyes.

“What good is a baby monitor if your baby is mute, you know? She was beautiful though, with her big off colored eyes. So one parent would stay up half the night and then the other, just watching and waiting for her silent cry. After about three months of that the both of them were so damn tired they couldn’t function right during the day. Her father got into a near paralyzing accident at work, so we came together and about a dozen close friends in town offered to stay up with baby Neo. At least on weekends.”

“They refused at first, and rightful so, the proposition is rather scary for parents of a new born. But we kept on it and me and my wife were the first to watch over baby Neo. We kept each other awake the entire time that first night, it was nice, being we have no kids of our own.”

“The town got through those tough infant months together, and we all became closer over it. It’s funny, you go through that together for someone else’s child, never ask for a lick of money, and never expect the girl’s own parents to be the ones who end up hurting her.”

“I ain’t going to go into _that_ but it was hard for a girl to say anything to anyone when you have to write it or sign it out. Least I imagine so. But they couldn’t hide the bruises as well as they thought, and of course rumors spread of even worse things. You can’t stop the rumors in a town of nine hundred. It wasn’t until Neo was fourteen before protective services even started to sniff around.”

“Townsfolk claim they were calling from the start, that it was protective services ignoring them. I don’t know, I just remember the signs I saw that I chose to ignore. And would you believe it when they had Neo ready to be swept away to a safe place she begged to stay. Neo worried they would take away from the town so she begged to stay. Her only option was to be legal emancipated into an adult if she wanted to stay in town.”

“We had always been friendly to Neo, everyone. Everyone has a Neo story in this town, from baby on up. Don’t go calling her this now because she really hates it but she is our brightly colored town mascot. And I guess it really showed how much she loved us all. So the only option was to work together to get her emancipated at the age of fourteen and a restraining order set.”

“With her emancipation emanate the parents up and left town. At least that’s what everyone figured. We questioned Neo, who was unaccounted for that night, and she said she didn’t know.” Melvin bottomed out the last of his beer and with a shaky hand ordered a round for the four of them, “Neo got her adult status and in no time we had the high school girl in an apartment of her own, me and my wife pitched in groceries or an odd job for cash. She’d come to our house some nights, same as half a dozen homes in town, just to eat dinner with somebody or watch a movie. She figured she could still live a pretty normal life, for a mute girl.”

“But people don’t forget things like that, and it was hard for her to move onto the next steps in her life. She had such a problem with boyfriends. They _all_ cheated on her, or pushed things too far, thinking it would be easy to get away with on a mute girl. Or the exact opposite, boys she liked would remember the rumors or have their own stories of what she went through. It can be hard to come to terms with that past I suppose, so they would avoid her. To our credit the worst of them all got chased out of town for hurting her.”

“As if she needed our help.” Sliding into the chair next to Melvin a woman of around the same age with blonde hair and a kind face, “I’m this blabber mouth’s wife, my name is Lauren and Neo tells me you’re Roman’s friends. Roman’s such a good young man.”  Lauren went around giving handshakes and smiles as though she interrupted a conversation on the weather.

“As I was saying…We expected Roman to be much of the same, but he didn’t know about Neo’s past and he told us he frankly didn’t care. A month went by and she was happy, two months and she was happy, three and four and we’ve never seen her this happy in her life. So you asked me if you should be worried. There is truly not a sweeter girl than our Neo. Just don’t go out of your way to make her upset. They’re still looking for her parents.”

A few more drinks went by as Neo caught up and walked the three of them around to all her closest friends. Driving home they were all a might tipsy and Neo buzzed all smiles. The three tried their best to keep the façade but they had assumed their past transgressions had put them each on her shit list. At home Neo wrote her final note of the night.

_Well Roman’s isn’t going to be back any time soon…so who’s first? HA! KIDDING ;) Sorry, I’m going to sleep. I’ll see you all tomorrow!_

When the door closed the three let out a collective sigh. Looking around they waited for someone to go to bed first. Admittedly no one wanted to sleep thinking about that story so they all huddled into a mass with Mercury in the middle on the couch and watched tv.

The creaking of the oars against the boat rang loudly on the otherwise silent lake as Emerald’s hands pushed them forward and back. The lake misted up warmer than the air around it. Pushing and pulling the oars with no purpose destination Emerald peered over the boat to look at the water. The lake’s water colored bright pink caused her to recoil backwards slamming against the other side of the boat. Looking down into the lake on this side the color had changed to brown. Resuming rowing the paddles pulled the strangely colored water up and it dripped off like soft serve. Emerald looked around the lake unable to tell if she had made any progress when she turned around to see Neo, in white boots, a white vest, and pink parasol lunging at her.

Jolting awake under the mound of bodies on the couch Emerald awoke her two business partners with her struggle to get free. Their hearts raced as Emerald pulled herself to her feet.

“I can’t sleep.”

“Me either” admitted Cinder as she stared at Neo’s door, “I’m staying up.”

Hours passed as Emerald and Cinder both kept an eye on the bedroom door. Mercury kept dozing off only to be nudged awake by either, “Let me sleep please…” he moaned with his eyes closed.

“Look, I don’t want to die and I _ate her ice cream_.”

“No one is going to die. You think she’d kill you over that?”

“She said she would this morning!” In a loud whisper.

“What time is it?”

“Four in the morning.” The tv had gone to infomercials and no one had paid attention for an hour, “And Roman’s still-“ Just then the door jiggled. The three shot up and cowered in each other’s arms before it opened and Roman stepped through.

“Why are you still awake?”

“Oh God Roman you’ve got to help us! Is Neo dangerous?!”

“Uhh…no? What the hell?”

“She said she’d kill me!”

“She turned my skin orange!”

“They think she broke my Salem figure.”

Roman scanned the three of them with a hand on his chin, “Okay. You two I get, but what did you do Emerald?”

“I ate her ice cream last night! Oh God, it was just so hot! You’ve got to save me Roman. What should we do?!”

With a sigh he turned back to the door. “Just hang tight for a couple more hours, I’ll be back.”

They remained vigilant to Roman’s command as now Mercury really wasn’t allowed to sleep. Two hours later Roman returned and dropped the contents of his arms on the counter. A bin of ice cream, a bottle of cinnamon body wash, and an unopened Salem figure for Remnant Warriors. Throwing the ice cream in the freezer he kicked off his shoes, passed into the hallway, and spoke.

“Next time. Just ask. She would have said yes.” Closing the bedroom door behind him Roman stripped to his underwear as Neo made room. Sliding into bed Neo pressed her lips against his shoulder.

Feeling her lips turn into smile against his skin Roman answered, “Well. At least they won’t want to come back any time soon.”

**Author's Note:**

> I tried to make this story mildly spooky and mysterious, I hope I accomplished that much. Except for reformed Roman I wanted all the other characters to play similar to canon. Feel free to opine or critique anything, I'd really appreciate I do write to try to get better at writing.
> 
> Good luck to all other competitors! Neo really is a fun character to read and write.


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